Money managers who are interested in the ETF space have also partnered up with providers with a stable foothold to expand their own product lines and gain access to a wider investment audience.
For example, Aberdeen Standard Investments earlier this year acquired the U.S. business of ETF Securities, which has been known for its line of physically backed precious metals-related ETFs.
“We refocused our efforts back to the U.S., which led Aberdeen to the purchase of ETF Securities. That not only put some products on their portfolio suite, which were additive, but also gave Aberdeen Standard a new platform – which is ETFs, which would be a new platform for growth,” Stan Kiang, Director, Strategic Accounts for Aberdeen Standard Investments, said at the Charles Schwab IMPACT 2018 conference.
Mergers and acquisitions are a natural evolution of the business that has allowed some money managers whom were late to the ETF game to step right in and keep up with all the forerunners.
As investors try to diversify away from the current market risks in both the fixed-income and equities markets, many have looked into commodities to potentially provide non-correlated returns or at least limit risks of traditional stock and bond portfolios.
“Over time, as the markets have gotten a little rockier or people have started to focus a little bit more on diversifying assets, a little bit more on non-correlated assets, and I that’s where commodities are starting to come into vogue,” Kiang added.
For example, over the past month, the Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF (NYSEArca: PALL) rose 17.4%, the Aberdeen Standard Physical Silver Shares ETF (NYSEArca: SIVR) gained 5.4% and Aberdeen Standard Physical Precious Metals Basket Shares ETF (NYSEArca: GLTR) added 4.7%.
For more market-related commentary from Tom Lydon and other industry experts, visit our ETF Trends video category.